Index on Censorship and the Bush Theatre organised a debate as a part of the RADAR Festival, to explore the rights of the artist to free expression and to examine the role of arts institutions in defending and promoting free expression

Gaza’s de-facto Hamas government closed the office of Al Arabiya, Palestinian network Ma’an news and the local production company Lens on Thursday. Ma’an reported the incident as having received a closure order from the Attorney General delivered directly to their offices. Al Arabiya published a report from their Gaza correspondent,

On 25 December 2012, Gaza’s Hamas government announced a ban on Palestinian journalists working with Israeli media. This decision affected just three journalists in Gaza, one of whom is 25-year-old Abeer Ayyoub. Abeer went from working as a fixer for visiting foreign journalists to writing stories herself, and in the

A UN human rights expert has slammed the government of Israel, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza for unduly limiting free speech. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, special rapporteur on free expression Frank La Rue said that intimidation, censorship and restrictive laws

The head of a new Palestinian news channel has been arrested on undisclosed charges in Israel. Bahaa Khairi Moussa, the general director of the Palestine Prisoner Channel, which covers the conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, was arrested on Thursday (17 May). Saher al-Qassim, the news broadcaster’s executive director, believes

Israeli troops have stormed two Palestinian TV stations, seizing equipment and forcing them to close. In the early hours of 29 February, members of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raided Al-Wattan and Al-Quds Educational TV in the West Bank, territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority. During the raid on Al-Wattan, four members of staff were held

Palestinian security services in Gaza City raided a social media conference on Sunday, stopping it from taking place. The police stormed The First Palestinian Conference on Social Media which was being held at Light House venue in the city, and halted the event, on the grounds organisers had not obtained the

Index on Censorship magazine

Don’t miss the spring issue of Index on Censorship magazine. Post Charlie Hebdo our commentators take a global view at how threats are being used to stop writers and artists, with Ariel Dorfman, David Edgar, Father Ted’s Arthur Mathews, Turkish novelist Elif Shafak and others. Also, major general Tim Cross and internet guru Martha Lane Fox go head to head on national security versus privacy, and Ismail Einashe on the perils of escaping from Eritrea.